


Cultivate

by Rose_Verte



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, TAZ Candlenights Exchange 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:20:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28620222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rose_Verte/pseuds/Rose_Verte
Summary: Duck and Minerva touch down to begin their work in the Amazon, ready to begin a new adventure together, knowing they want to do this together. But the specifics what being together means for them now have been yet to be hashed out.
Relationships: Minerva/Duck Newton
Comments: 8
Kudos: 19





	Cultivate

**Author's Note:**

> 1)This is my gift for Honourablefool for the 2020 Candlenights Gift Exchange. Happy Candlenights! I sincerely hope you like it!
> 
> 2)This is my first time writing Amnesty. I hope it's okay. 
> 
> 3)Duck's Spanish is not supposed to be good. 
> 
> 4)There's sex talk, it's brief and mostly for comedy.

“DO YOU PARTAKE IN COITUS, WAYNE NEWTON?” 

Duck swallowed his coffee with a choke. “Uhh, well. Yeah, I. I mean, not in a while. But that’s uh, that’s one of those subjects we Earthlings sort of, don’t shout about three seconds after touching down in foreign lands.” 

He rubbed his eyes, having slept very little on the flight. Truthfully, he was more than used to Minvera’s seemingly random inquiries about Earth culture or his habits specifically at this point, but he _was_ tired and they did need their bags and _also he really didn’t want to talk to Minerva about boning at whatever the hell hour of the morning it was in Amazon Standard time_. 

Tossing his empty cup in a nearby bin, he did his best to ignore her and flagged down the most official looking person he could find. 

“Disculpe, ¿dónde está el reclamo de equipaje?”

The woman stared at him silently for a moment, no doubt impressed by the way he could still roll his r’s more than twenty years since high school Spanish. After a beat, though, she answered (with an accent that didn’t sound quite the way he expected it to) in english. 

“Baggage? Downstairs to your right.” 

“Uh, gracias…uh, thank you.” he muttered as the woman continued to stared bemusedly at the two of them and then turned to follow the way she had pointed. 

“I DON’T THINK THAT WOMAN SHARES THE EARTH LANGUAGE YOU PREPARED, WAYNE NEWTON.” 

“You know, Minnie. I think you might be right.” He rubbed his eyes and eyed the signs with increasing suspicion. Well. They were on a quest of sorts, weren’t they, and there were bound to be setbacks. “We’ll figure it out.” 

“YOU DO NOT NEED TO WORRY, WAYNE NEWTON! MY POWERS OF TELEPATHY ALLOW ME MASTERY OVER NEARLY ANY FORM OF COMMUNICATION!”

“Well, there you go. I knew I brought you along for a reason.” 

He scanned the baggage carousels until he found the one that their luggage was supposed to be coming to. 

Minerva’s voice was quieter than usual when she continued. “That is...you are understating for the sake of comedy, correct? This is not the only reason you wanted me to accompany you on this mission.”  
Duck turned to look up at her. She looked thoughtful but not particularly upset, which was good. He didn’t want to have offended her just because he cranky and overtired from the flight. 

“Well, I didn’t know you were the damn Duolingo Owl until about three seconds ago, so no. That didn’t have any bearing on bringing you along. Anyway.” And he could feel his cheeks heating up a bit at saying this. “We talked about this. We’re doing this together because we like each other’s company. We’re friends. Doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.” 

She nodded. “I consider you closer than any friend I’ve had in my considerably long life, Wayne Newton. I HAVE TRAVELED THROUGH YOUR BRAIN, AFTER ALL!” 

He had to grin, even as her volume became once again, probably too loud for Manaus Airport. 

“BUT YOU DO NOT FEEL COMFORTABLE DISCUSSING COITUS WITH ME?” 

If he still had coffee he would have choked on it again. “Come on, now. That’s not fair. You getting in a lot of round table sex chats with Dr. Sarah Drake and Leo? You’ve been in their brains too.” 

She was quiet again for a moment and then-

“I believe our relationship has become fundamentally more intimate than the ones I’ve had with any of my other Chosen, but I apologize for pushing the boundaries of that.” 

“Minerva, I-”

She cut him off, which was probably for the best since his brain hadn’t fully formed a response yet. 

“OUR LUGGAGE HAS APPEARED UNMOLESTED, WAYNE NEWTON!” She smiled and grabbed both of their bags with an ease that would have shocked passersby if there were any around at this hour. “COME! LET US ACQUIRE TRANSPORTATION AND SETTLE INTO LODGINGS FOR REST!”

The next twenty minutes or so were about as hectic as could be expected as they rushed to find and board the correct bus in time. There was an odd, uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach now that he suspected had little to do with the affects of air travel but that he would have been happy to ignore in favor of nervous anticipation for the orientation they would be having in a few hours if it weren’t for the silence as they rode out in the still darkness as Minerva tried, unsuccessfully, to look like she was interested in something going on outside (which again, darkness).

He couldn’t remember things having ever felt this awkward between them, even when she had been a shadow calling him towards a destiny he didn’t want. 

“Minnie-” He reached out, as if to touch her hand maybe and which was not something they really did ever what with her being incorporeal most of their acquaintance and ended just...leaving his hand hanging there, more awkward than if he’d followed through without thinking about it. He looked like a child, scolded for touching a hot stove once, paralyzed in fear of all kitchen appliances. No. That didn’t make sense. He and Minerva had hugged before hadn’t they? She wasn’t a stove. Not stove-like in the slightest. 

“THE NAME OF THE LANGUAGE THEY ARE SPEAKING IS PORTUGUESE, DUCK NEWTON!” She faced him again, smiling a little too brightly. 

“What, I’m not Wayne anymore? You’re _that _mad?”__

__She laughed, and fuck did he love it when she laughed._ _

__Which was not the thought to linger on at the moment._ _

__“Look, I didn’t mean to shut you out back there. I was just...tired, disoriented, the whole thing. It’s always been Jane who went off on these kind of...humanitarian adventures. I never...well, I about to say I’d never left West Virginia but we both know the interstellar travel or whatever the fuck makes that technically untrue. Still, uh. My point is, it wasn’t personal. There’s uh, you know. You can always talk to me if something’s on your mind, we don’t have to...I don’t want you to feel like there’s something you’re not allowed to say to me. That’s not right.”_ _

__Her smile was soft. “That was more believable than your typical attempts at subterfuge, Wayne, but I don’t feel you were being entirely honest, either.”_ _

__“Well, geez. I’m _tired_. I told you.” He couldn’t help smiling back at her, though. “Alright. Let’s get on with it, then. You’re curious about Earth Sex in general or you got your eye on someone in specific?” _ _

__She stared at him for a moment, eyes wide._ _

__“WAYNE NEWTON! YOU ARE GRAVELY MISUNDERSTANDING MY-”_ _

__She was cut off by a flurry of shushing and complaints in what was probably Portuguese._ _

__“Lo siento....”He muttered turning vaguely towards the other passengers for a moment, barely registering his embarrassment._ _

__“Misunderstanding what?” His eyes were back on her._ _

__“You had assumed I was experiencing sexual attraction to a third party and felt uncomfortable about the possibility of me recounting that experience, yes?”_ _

__“Well...yeah, that about sums it up.” He rubbed his eyes again, a knot fully forming in his stomach. “So, uh, still not totally clear on what you _did_ mean…”_ _

__“Wayne…”_ _

__“Right.” He coughed, not quite looking away but not _not_ looking away either._ _

__“IS IT-” She lowered her voice, quickly. She was getting better at that, and quickly. “Do you find my physical form unarousing?”_ _

__“It’s not that!” He laughed again. It was so hard to feel awkward when she was around, even when every part of him was insisting he would if he kept having this conversation. “Look, I’m not sure how you did it where you’re from but here. Well, no, let me not speak for a whole planet of varied sexual and emotional needs. For me, being intimate with someone who I know like I know you, who I care about. That means something pretty significant. And we sort of...we both packed up and left everything to just fucking start again here, cause they need people and we wanted something to do and we wanted to be together. Yeah, I think about you like that. Of course I do. But I don’t want to put more pressure on this than I already have, cause we need each other.”_ _

__“Wayne Newton.” She put her hand on his and he didn’t pull away this time. “When we decided to aid in this effort, we both knew there were no more prophetic visions to lead us. I do not know if we would make a successful romantic partnership. It is not a skillset I have much practice in. But...I believe that is something we could approach with the same sense of discovery, if we shared the same goal. I do not mean to complicate our bond but...it has been...some time since I have made a...personal choice in this way and I do not believe you have either. I do not have full knowledge of Earth Bonding, nor would I expect you to conform to the long dead traditions of my world but...” She trailed off, holding his gaze for a moment before shaking her head. It was not a look he’d seen often. “I apologize. I had not intended to push you farther, but I have continued to do so.”_ _

__Her eyes met his again and she looked... damn it, if she wasn’t a sight with the sun rising behind her just then._ _

__“You haven’t.” He let his thumb slide against her palm. And then, for some reason, they were both laughing again and once they started laughing it was hard to stop. He still hadn’t pulled his hand away. And maybe it was that hazy lack of sleep feeling, or the excitement from landing in the damn wilderness to do something totally out of his comfort zone or maybe it was something else but honestly, everything in the world felt pretty damn right just then._ _

__It wasn’t long before the thought crossed his mind that maybe he should kiss her except he didn’t know if her planet even had that ritual but before he could ask she had pulled him up and was kissing him, kinda harder than he was used to but whoops he definitely liked that way more than he thought he would so there was point in that column he guessed._ _

__And if anyone else on the bus had anything to say about the couple making out furiously all the way to the camp before the sun came up that morning, he never heard about it.  
__

__He didn’t speak Portuguese._ _

_  
_


End file.
